1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a disc player which permits simultaneous loading of plural discs as recording media therein and has been reduced in dimensions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disc players are used to perform optical reading and digital reproduction of information recorded on a disc as a recording medium. These disc players have spread widely in recent years. In particular, the spreading of disc players for the reproduction of information, such as music, recorded on so-called CDs (compact discs) of 12 cm or 8 cm in diameter is remarkable.
Disc players of the type described above can be classified into two groups, one being of the type that discs are loaded one after another for reproduction and the other of the type equipped with a so-called autochanger function so that plural discs held in a magazine are drawn out one by one for reproduction.
In a conventional disc player equipped with such an autochanger function, plural disc trays each of which carries a disc mounted thereon are generally held in a magazine. The magazine is detachable from a main body of the disc player. After insertion of the magazine in the main body of the disc player, one of the disc trays is drawn out of the magazine and then transported to a disc reproducing position, whereby information of the disc mounted on the disc tray is reproduced. To reproduce information of all the discs, the above procedure is repeated.
To selectively draw out one of the disc trays from the magazine and then to reproduce the information of the disc mounted on the disc tray, it is possible to move a reproduction unit--which is provided, for example, with a turntable mechanism and an optical head system --upwardly or downwardly in accordance with the height of the disc tray to be drawn out of the magazine. However, the reproduction unit is relatively heavy and is required to have a high degree of accuracy in movement. To permit stable and smooth, upward or downward movement of the reproduction unit over a particular distance which varies depending on the height of each disc tray to be drawn out, a considerably complex and highly accurate mechanism is indispensable.
As an alternative, it may be contemplated of moving the magazine upwardly or downwardly to bring a desired disc tray into alignment in height with the reproduction unit instead of moving the reproduction unit downwardly or upwardly. The magazine is however designed to permit its detachment from the main body of the disc player. To support the magazine movably up and down, a support mechanism for the magazine in the main body of the disc players inconveniently becomes complex and large.
With the foregoing in view, some conventional disc players have adopted such a construction that a magazine is mounted simply in a detachable manner on a main body and, after a disc tray is transported from the magazine to a point above a reproducing position, the disc tray so transported is lowered to the height of the reproducing position, for example, by a lift mechanism. This construction, however, additionally requires the lift mechanism, resulting in the problem that the overall construction becomes greater and, especially, the vertical dimension increases.
In the conventional disc players of the construction described above, it is necessary to detach the magazine from the main body and then to draw out the disc trays of the magazine when a user wants to mount discs on the disc trays and keep them in the magazine or to replace the discs in the magazine by different discs. This has led to the inconvenience that disc replacement work is very cumbersome.
As has been described above, the conventional disc players are accompanied by a problem such that the construction a transportation mechanism for transporting each disc between the magazine and the disc reproducing portion is complex. Any attempt to reduce the vertical dimension results in the problem that the number of discs which can be stored has to be decreased.